Research Design Populations and Sampling Procedures

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter discussed the steps and the method that was used to answer the research problems of the study. This chapter consists of five parts; the research design, population and sampling procedures, research instruments, variables and hypothesis, data collection techniques, procedure of the research, measurement procedures, and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

Deal with problems of the study stated previously, this research used the descriptive analysis method by using an ex post facto design. The descriptive method with an ex post facto design was used to find out the students’ problems in reading and their reading achievement and then to see the correlation between independent variable reading comprehension ability and dependent variable students’ problems in reading and the strength of the connection without considering what went before and just to know what is going on. No treatment involved in the research Hatch Evelyn, 1991:99. Descriptive study was used to describe and interpret the condition of a case or the relation between the certain cases and sometimes, descriptive study is called a non-experimental study. As stated by Best 1977 in Lengkanawati, 1997:109 that: 31 Descriptive research, sometimes known as non-experimental research, deal with the relation between variables, testing of hypotheses, and the development of the generalization, principles or theories that have universal validity. It is concerned with functional relationship. The expectation is that if variable A is systematically associated with variable B, prediction of future phenomena may be possible and the result may suggest additional hypotheses to test. The above statement not only state that the descriptive research is sometimes called non-experimental research but also deals with the relationship between variables, hypotheses testing, and developing generalization or theory that has universal validity. This type of research design was used to answer and analyze the research problems in this study.

3.2 Populations and Sampling Procedures

The populations of this study were the students in the second year of an SLTP in Lembang. The population was taken because they have been studying English for about two years in the Junior High School based on assigned curriculum for each school. According to Hatch and Farhady 1982:9, a stratified random sampling gives us a random sample but the sample will be drawn according to the enrollments of students. The amount of the samples involved from this school were obtained after grouping all the second year students of 469 students from ten classes into high achievement students and low achievement students based on their academic reports. By using stratified random sampling, researcher randomly took 20 of the total number of students. So, about 92 students of the second year of this school were chosen to become the sample of this research. 32

3.3 Research Instruments